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On Theater: The beat, and the season, go on

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The Costa Mesa Playhouse will be 50 years old in June. I can testify to the authenticity of that observance since I started my 40-year community theater career in that first Costa Mesa production “Send Me No Flowers.”

Back then, it was known as the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse because it was formed by the city’s recreation department — specifically by its cultural arts coordinator, one Bette Berg, who tapped Pati Tambellini as the playhouse’s first managing director.

The theater’s first location was a vintage auditorium on the Orange County Fairgrounds. Two decades later, Tambellini moved the operation to its present location at 661 Hamilton St. in the Rea Elementary School complex.

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After her death, the playhouse leadership changed hands several times. Currently, it’s being operated by Michael Dale Brown, who directs a show each season and also mans the box office. The word “Civic” was dropped when city sponsorship was discontinued.

Brown will be at the helm of the theater’s next offering, “The Haunting of Hill House,” and he has a really tough act to follow. The season opener, Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage,” staged by Michael Serna, was the best local community theater production so far this year. Shirley Jackson’s chilling “Hill House” will run from Oct. 24 to Nov. 16.

They made a movie of “Bonnie and Clyde” back in the late ‘60s, and now they’ve put the two brash bank bandits on stage — as a musical, yet. Playhouse audiences will be able to check it out when director David A. Blair’s production runs from Feb. 6 to March 8.

Christopher Durang’s social satire “The Marriage of Bette & Boo,” directed by Jeff Paul, will be the fare from April 10 to May 3. It’s billed as a treatise on marital misery, alcoholism, emotional instability, religion, stillbirth and death — all dispensed in a black comedy format.

A more traditional show is ticketed for the golden anniversary period, May 29 to June 28. It’s the stage musical version of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women,” under the direction of Aurora Long.

More information on the Costa Mesa Playhouse may be accessed online at https://www.costamesaplayhouse.com or by calling the box office at (949) 650-5269.

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Across town at Vanguard University, the new season also is underway with a terrific production of a homegrown musical revue “The Beat Goes On,” which closes this weekend. If you haven’t seen it, you really should.

Coming up next, from Oct. 24 to Nov. 2, is “Metamorphosis,” described as “a contemporary drama which presents stunning imagery and breathtaking storytelling.” Artistic director Susan K. Berkompas will stage this spooky production, running past Halloween.

“Home for the Holidays” is ticketed for the first two weekends in December. It’s a comedy with original music, including several Christmas standards, and will be directed by Vanda Eggington, whose “Beat” is currently going on.

Eugene O’Neill’s tender comedy “Ah, Wilderness,” set in the middle America of 1906, will be presented from Feb. 27 to March 6. Kevin Slay is scheduled to direct the great dramatist’s only lighthearted offering.

Vanguard performers can brush up their Shakespeare in one of Broadway’s best vintage musicals, Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate,” which will close out the season. Berkompas (who starred in the Bard’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” which inspired this musical) will return to direct this show, which will be on stage from April 10-26.

Vanguard’s stage productions are presented in the college’s Lyceum Theater, located off Newport Boulevard (though VU’s official address is on Fair Drive). You can find further information by calling (714) 619-6425 or going online at theatre.vanguard.edu.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot.

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